


Okay, tbh

by Miaou Jones (miaoujones)



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Love Confessions, M/M, Secret Crush, Slightly Experimental Style, Stream of Consciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 11:58:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16117991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miaoujones/pseuds/Miaou%20Jones
Summary: It will be okay that his sister is dating his longtime secret crush, Rin tells himself.





	Okay, tbh

**Author's Note:**

> AU in which Rin went to Iwatobi High instead of Samezuka and was an awkward nerd instead of an athlete.

It will be okay…ish. Okayish. 

It will be okayish that his sister is dating his longtime secret crush, Rin tells himself. I mean, Makoto is such a nice kid, and he makes all these efforts to connect with Rin and make him feel less awkward. For Kou, of course; of course he's being nice to his girlfriend's brother.

Only it turns out Makoto has been sort of having these, uh, feelings? For a while now. He's not exactly sure what it all means, and he'd kind of like to talk about stuff with Rin, if Rin is okay with that…

Feelings, huh. Rin is weird but he's not stupid. His sister might sometimes disagree, and Rin wouldn't always have a counterargument for her opinion—but in this case, he knows what ~feelings~ means. It means his sister's boyfriend is gay. 

Fanfreakingtastic.

It's actually okay talking to Makoto about possibly not being straight. ("I'm definitely not straight," Makoto says, looking down at his hands, clasped between his knees.) It's okay talking to Makoto about this stuff. 

It's okay _talking_ to Makoto.

It's less okay when Makoto tries to kiss him.

Then Rin apparently decides he should make things even worse by threatening to tell his sister that Makoto only went out with her to get close to Rin.

…See? Just like Kou thinks, Rin is sometimes very, very stupid.

The next day, there's a note in Rin's shoe locker. He knows who it's from even before he opens it, then sighs as he reads it. He had been hoping Makoto would just put whatever he had to say in the note, but no—Makoto wants Rin to meet him on the roof. 

Of course he does.

Meeting someone on the roof is a thing that only happens in anime, but if ever there was an anime protagonist walking around in the real world, Tachibana Makoto is it. Rin is not sure exactly what genre the anime is, but he's pretty damn sure Makoto is the male protagonist. And Rin is, like, the weird sibling of the female protagonist. The offbeat character who has a certain following, even though none of the fans who claim to love him so much would give him the time of day if they met him in the real world.

Rin knows, because this is the real world.

Anyhow, okay, fine, he goes to meet Makoto on the rooftop. He makes a joke about Makoto doing things backwards, trying to kiss him before calling him out for a rooftop confession.

Makoto only blinks at him and Rin wonders if the roof is low enough that he could jump off without an ambulance needing to be called. He looks over the side and doesn't think he could make it.

"Um," Makoto says and Rin looks at him. "I just—I just wanted to say that I'm going to break up with Kou. You're right: she deserves way better than me."

Rin sort of stares at Makoto, but Makoto is having a hard time meeting Rin's eyes and doesn't notice. Better than Makoto? I mean, yeah, of course Kou deserves the best. But she's not going to do better than Makoto. Not at Iwatobi High. Maybe not anywhere in the whole prefecture.

Rin snaps out of it when he realizes Makoto is looking at him now. "Just—please don't tell her I only asked her out because of you."

Even if Rin had been intending to do such a thing, which obviously he's not, he doesn't even know why he said that at the time, except that he maybe sort of wanted to hurt Makoto for trying to kiss him, for making Rin think even for a fraction of a moment that something could happen between them—

"I know there's probably nothing I can say to convince you it's not true, to get you to believe I went out with her because I really like her. But just, for her sake—she doesn't deserve that. She's a really good person."

 _You're_ a really good person, Rin thinks but doesn't say as he tries not to stare.

"Okay," he says.

Makoto nods. "Okay, then." He starts towards the door to the stairwell, and Rin realizes he could have just gone down the way he came up instead of contemplating jumping off the roof. gdi, Rin. "Sorry," Makoto says as he goes, not looking at Rin. "Sorry for," he shakes his head, "everything."

Rin probably shouldn't do it but he grabs Makoto's arm, and Makoto stops walking. Rin looks at his hand on Makoto's arm and knows he should let go, but he doesn't. Because he just finally figured out that Makoto is saying goodbye.

And he doesn't want Makoto to say goodbye. 

He probably definitely shouldn't do it but he holds on tighter to Makoto's arm as he goes up on his toes and kisses Makoto on the mouth.

It is the most awkward kiss in the history of kisses.

It's kind of terrible, just a really bad kiss. It's not a good kiss.

Makoto tries to tug his arm away and Rin lets him, although honestly he's probably not _letting_ it happen, Makoto is bigger and stronger than him—

And then Makoto's big, strong arm is pulling him closer.

And the kiss is. It's. A thing that's happening. It's—the kiss is—

The kiss _is_.

* * *

(When they finally get up the courage to tell Kou the next day, she's just like _omfg how dumb do you boys think I am, I've known for literally months, I saw this coming five thousand meters away. I only kept going out with Makoto to give you two a better chance at figuring things out, okay. So now that we have that sorted out, do you mind if I go out with someone from another school? He's the captain of the Samezuka swim team actually. He's super into me but he's been holding back out of respect for Makoto, and I'm pretty into him too…_

So that weekend the Matsuoka siblings go on a double date with their backstroking swim captain boyfriends. Yeah, all right, the two of them have A Type, but that's okay. It's all okay.

More than okay, tbh.)


End file.
